Spaghetti langoustines

spaghetti_langoustine.jpg

Serves 2

Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Cooking time: 20 minutes 

Ingredients
6 Langoustines 
19 strands of spaghetti (for this I find the dried spaghetti is best as it holds together better) 
1 litre of  Non-flavoured oil such as sunflower, vegetable, corn etc. 
Aromat or salt to season


Variations
You can use large prawns in place of the langoustines. 
If you have flavoured salt such as Steers, chilli, garlic etc you can use this in place of plain salt.
 

Method
Place a saucepan of salted water on to boil and when the water is at a rolling boil, cook the spaghetti to al dente according to packet instructions.  Remove from the water and lay out each strand straight and individually on your chopping board.  DO NOT RINSE as you want the starch to remain on the pasta so it is sticky. Leave to cool.  

Meanwhile prepare your langoustines by pulling off the head and claws.  The shells of langoustines are really quite sharp and can be difficult to remove.  I find the easiest way of shelling langoustines is to cut the shell down the tummy and break apart.  To do this, get a pair of kitchen scissors and carefully working from the top of the body down on the tummy side, cut down the shell being careful to not cut the flesh.  Once you have cut down you will find that breaking off the shell and taking out the soft flesh is much easier.  A fiddly sometimes painful job but as they are so super sweet and delicious you will forget that the second you eat them!  

If you have the room in your freezer, rinse the heads, claws and shells and freeze - these make a wonderful seafood stock or sauce at a later date.  To devein the shellfish, get a very sharp small knife, at the bottom of the back you should see the the dark grey vein, hook the tip of your knife underneath the vein, slowly and carefully pull the vein until it is all removed. 

Take 3 strands of spaghetti per langoustine and starting at the top, wrap the spaghetti around the top once and then work down the body wrapping the spaghetti tightly.  The spaghetti should cover most of the flesh.  You can now either store them for cooking later or cook them straight away.  

Half fill the wok with the oil and heat on a medium heat (my hob goes from 1-9 and I would put this on 6½).  If you have a thermometer then you want it to measure 170c - if you do not, then test with the spare stand of spaghetti, cut a piece of the spaghetti off and put into the oil, it should start to sizzle immediately.  If not yet ready, just wait a little longer and retest with another piece. 

Carefully put the langoustines into the oil and cook until the spaghetti is golden which should take around 3 minutes.  Remove on to kitchen paper, season with Aromat or salt and serve immediately.